Body composition and swimming

Cut down on your night time snacks. Years ago my doctor told me if you are need a little snack eat a couple of soda crackers. If Iwake up starving i do love cheese. 1 oz of cheese and 4 cackers a great snack. If I need something exotic to tingle my taste buds 2 slices of pickled beets. and a half slice of ham. Thanks for the suggestion, geochuck. Believe me, I don't eat anything like I did 5 or 6 years ago. No night snacks, daily muffins, or donuts on the weekend for me now. I would truly be fat is I ate the way I did back then. I would have been truly fat in college despite all the swimming if I ate the way I did 5 or 6 years ago. Here is the study I found which doesn't really answer my question, but does indicate that hormonal changes do take place at least on the particular hormones they studied : www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../8861670 As with many things, I don't think there is a simple explaination. Perhaps the swimming vs. running thing is a combination of difference of calories burned along with changes that take place in primarily anaerobic activity.

Chris - I agree with you somewhat on the calories explaination. The only thing that perplexes me is that in college as an 18-20 year old, I probably trained in swimming 15-18 hours a week. Even with all those hours of training, I still had to be mindful of my diet. In my mid-thirties, I trained only 12-15 hours a week for triathlons and could barely eat enough to keep my weight and body fat appropriate for my height and frame. It was bad enough that I wake up in the middle of the night starving and have to eat something. I seem to recall reading once about a study of elite-level swimmers and runners. The investigators were puzzled by the fact that the swimmers tended to have higher body fat percentages than the runners (although both groups were quite low, as you might imagine). Unfortunately I cannot find the article now but I seem to recall that the swimmers' appetites were generally greater than the runners -- they tended to want to eat more (relative to workload). After hearing about Phelps' routine daily diet, I guess I don't find that hard to believe... Of course, it may well be that low body fat favors running as a sport more than swimming, so there is a self-selection problem going on here (ie, the elite runners are those people who tend toward lower body fat).

Here are some Calories burnt doing 30 minutes exercise, they may not be completely accurate??? Calories burnt depends on your size, weight, muscle mass, male or female, and effort. Swimming, Backstroke, general 306 Swimming, Breaststroke, general 434 Swimming, Butterfly, general 459 Swimming, Freestyle, laps - fast/vigorous effort 459 Swimming, Freestyle, laps - light/moderate effort 298 Swimming, General, leisurely, not lap swimming 255 Cycling, Outdoor, 16-19km/h, light effort 255 Cycling, Outdoor, 19-22km/h, moderate effort 332 Cycling, Outdoor, 22-27kmh, vigorous effort 434 Cycling, Outdoor, 27-30km/h, very fast 510 Cycling, Outdoor,

That's right, written like a true professor! Now, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but there is a time-based relationship between running and swimming, on a scale of about 4-to-1. What that means is, 100 meters of swimming equals a 400 meter run in terms of time spent exercising, approximately. The world's best 100m run is 9.69, which is about what a top swimmer will do from the blocks for a 25. The point is simple, if you really want to compare a 4 mile run, in terms of physiological impact, you should swim continuously for 1 mile, or an equivalent time. Conversely, if you wanted to know how best to train for the 100 meter swim you should compare to the world's best 400 runners. Amazing how they focus on extending 100 meter bursts (400/100,100/25,4-1), maximizing top speed output over the 400 using sprint endurance. I am no runner, but...comparing the 00-04 years to the others, it appears that you are basically replacing 8,000-10,000 yards of swimming with 20 miles of running. Forget all this "fat burning HR" nonsense, I believe you were simply burning significantly more calories running than swimming, particularly when you factor in hills and the pounding that running produces. For me the comparison would be cycling: one hour of cycling will generally consumer more calories than one hour of swimming because, in cycling, I am exercising continuously (even recovering from hard efforts is "active recovery") while that is not true in swimming. In swim practice, including time between sets, you might spend as much as 10-50% of the time on the wall (although, for me, the level of intensity tends to be somewhat higher in swimming). Using Elise's numbers as an example: at a pace of 8-minute miles, 20 miles is 160 minutes. At a 1:15/hundred pace, 10,000 yards would take 125 minutes if swum continuously. Substitute the rates of your choice, but generally running & swimming at a comparable level of ability will have the result that running 20 miles takes longer to do than swimming 8000-10000 yards. (And it seems to me that I have read from a number of sources -- which doesn't necessarily make it true -- that the same perceived effort for running will burn calories at a slightly higher rate than for swimming. This might possibly have to do with cooling.)

Cut down on your night time snacks. Years ago my doctor told me if you are need a little snack eat a couple of soda crackers. If I wake up starving I do love cheese. 1 oz of cheese and 4 cackers a great snack. If I need something exotic to tingle my taste buds 2 slices of pickled beets. and a half slice of ham.

Here is something I found by Dr. George Best: The adrenal glands produce another hormone that can promote weight gain though. This hormone is called cortisol, and it tends to cause the storage of fat in the lower abdomen. Unlike adrenaline which is produced for only short periods of time, the adrenal glands can produce cortisol long-term. This means that any fat-burning effects from adrenaline will be overcome in the long-run by the fat-storing effects of cortisol. From a survival standpoint, cortisol serves the purpose of providing emergency storage of fat for energy when the body is under stress for a long period of time. For human cultures in which the primary source of stress is physical stress, this fat storage can help keep people alive during extended periods of living under harsh conditions. The problem is, mental/emotional stress will elevate cortisol levels too, and for individuals who lead particularly stressful lives, the continued high cortisol levels will likely stimulate lower belly fat deposition. So what does this have to do with exercise? Well, for someone who is under chronic emotional stress and whose adrenal glands are constantly overworked, their cortisol production is already high and their ability to produce adrenaline has been largely exhausted. If you add a lot of strenuous exercise into the mix, the result is more cortisol production. As the cortisol levels increase, there is a greater and greater tendency to store fat in the lower abdomen. Also interesting - a scientific study of high cortisol levels in women and the storage of fat: www.ohsu.edu/.../menopausal060605.cfm Interesting hypothesis.One confounding factor is that"moderate"exercise decreases perceived stress and so would lead to decreased cortisol levels.Very strenuous exercise does increase cortisol levels though.

What about birth control? Hormones can affect metabolism rates, and of course they affect women and not men. Many women report weight gain when they start BCP, and this weight gain is difficult to manage, regardless of the exercise. Any thoughts? Have you seen any research/studies on this? Thanks. Diana

What about birth control? Hormones can affect metabolism rates, and of course they affect women and not men. Many women report weight gain when they start BCP, and this weight gain is difficult to manage, regardless of the exercise. Any thoughts? Have you seen any research/studies on this? Thanks. Diana I've seen conflicting studies, so I don't know that there is a simple answer. I think it depends on the woman. For me, I can't say I had a weight gain, but did have a change in body fat level. It tended to increase by 2 or 3 percent. Some female athletes are willing to trade off the slight increase in body fat for predictability and less problems with anemia.

Lack of sleep can send cortisol levels through the roof, supposedly. I want to eat constantly when I get one of my boughts of insomnia, so I think there's something to that.

I have never taken birth control pills so I cannot tell you about that problem. I would suggest abstinence. What about birth control? Hormones can affect metabolism rates, and of course they affect women and not men. Many women report weight gain when they start BCP, and this weight gain is difficult to manage, regardless of the exercise. Any thoughts? Have you seen any research/studies on this? Thanks. Diana